COVID-19 Patients Treated With This Drug Recommended By US President Likely To Die - Study

Posted by Thandiubani on Thu 23rd Apr, 2020 - tori.ng

A drug taunted by President Donald Trump as effective in the treatment of coronavirus has been revealed to be harmful.

Coronavirus

A panel of medical experts from the National Institutes of Health on Tuesday recommended against using the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin to treat the coronavirus outside clinical trials, undercutting President Donald Trump’s early claims that the drugs were a promising treatment for the disease, according to a report by Forbes.

The study of 308 patients in the United States found that 97 patients who took hydroxychloroquine had a death rate of 27.8 per cent while 158 patients who did not take the drug had an 11.4% death rate.

It also found that about 22 per cent of those taking the drug in addition to azithromycin also died, though the difference with this category and those under usual care was not considered “large enough” to rule out other factors that could have affected their recovery.

The study was conducted at the US Veterans Health Administration medical centres and funded by the National Institutes of Health and the University of Virginia.

The authors of the research, published here, said it has not been certified by peer review, meaning the findings cannot guide clinical practice yet.